Tools

About

Trawll is a new all-caps handwritten typeface. I created it as a project to teach myself how to use FontForge, an open-source typeface creation program. I used FontForge's freehand draw tool, which was not the worst for hand-drawing, but not the most fun either. (On some strokes, it made some very odd shapes!)

I found, overall, it was a steeper learning curve than other creation programs. But once you get the hang of its quirks, it isn’t too bad.

Yes, this is the kind of ultra-smooth result I get when drawing straight lines by hand. (Thank goodness for the Wacom tablet; these would be MUCH more jagged with a mouse.) I do like that FontForge differentiates the types of curve points with different shapes and colors; I only wish the colors were more different, since on some of these, I really have to zoom in to tell the difference between orangey-red and reddish-orange.

I’m setting Trawll free out there: free for personal use, free for commercial use. Hopefully it’ll come in handy for other font addicts! I’d love to see how you use it, so please feel free to drop me a line with a link to your projects!

Trawll includes two slightly different sets of caps, in both the uppercase and lowercase spots. I’ve also included the more common accented characters, and a big bunch of English punctuation (see image below). It's basically a narrower version of the way I learned to write on drafting projects and blueprints. Enjoy!